The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the governing body for Registered Nurses (RNs), Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) in Ontario, Canada.
The nursing profession has been self-regulating in Ontario since 1963. The government may give a profession permission to self-regulate when it shows that it can put the public’s interests ahead of its own. Ontario’s nurses use their knowledge and expertise to regulate themselves as individual practitioners and to regulate their profession through CNO.
CNO fulfils its role by
CNO also supports the regulation of nursing to keep the public safe by
CNO works with employers, educators and the government to make sure everyone in Ontario benefits from quality nursing services.
Achieving our purpose
CNO’s purpose is to protect the public by promoting safe nursing practice
CNO aims to prevent harm by identifying potential problems and addressing them before they can harm the public. We are committed to a whole-system approach to nursing regulation and working with nurses and other system partners to make a greater collective impact on the patient care system.
Strategic Plan 2021-2026
Our strategic plan will ensure that we continue to deliver on our purpose.
"Our Strategic Plan is alive; it is the fibre of this organization and we embed it into all we do. The plan has already supported a number of our successes, and it is the foundation for our future. We are driving transformation with our commitment to our purpose."
– Silvie Crawford, Executive Director & CEO
Annual Report
The theme of CNO’s 2024 Annual Report, “Building Better Together,” highlights our role in the health care system and the benefits of our system partnerships in 2024.
We worked with our partners to create meaningful changes and solutions that support health human resources and safe nursing practice. CNO was recognized as a trusted system partner, and we continue to build that trust in 2025.
Highlights in the annual report:
- There are 195,334 nurses in the Ontario health care system.
- We are modernizing the registration process to support the health system, including updating the nursing education registration requirement and adding a new Transition to Practice requirement.
- We improved labour mobility while supporting safe nursing practice with the Interjurisdictional Nurse Licensure initiative.
- We are developing a multi-partner, North American database to support safe care.
By-laws
CNO’s by-laws are the rules that govern how we operate. Government legislation authorizes our Council to make by-laws related to CNO’s governance (such as committee structure, appointments and elections), administration and regulatory functions.
College of Nurses of Ontario By-Laws
Approved by Council March 2000
Amended through June 2025